Thursday, December 20, 2012

Bumping into Randall Grahm in San Francisco, Owner of famed Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz in California, USA

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Randall Grahm in San Francisco

While I was at the US West Coast the last time, I run into Randall Grahm in San Francisco, the iconic winemaker and owner of Bonny Doon Vineyard. I was at the Opera for Richard Wagner’s Ring der Nibelungen with my wife Annette and grown-up daughter Katharina, while Randall was at the Symphony with his wife and young and only daughter Amelie. Most people know Randall Grahm through his famous Bonny Doon Vineyard, but I have followed him mainly through his Pacific Rim Riesling venture, which started out as part of Bonny Doon Vineyard.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Annette Schiller at the Opera in San Francisco

Randall Grahm

Randall Grahm might be the USA’s most influential wine voice since Robert Mondavi. Like the late Robert Mondavi, his wine journey was not a straight one.

A Los Angeles native and philosophy major at UC Santa Cruz, Randall Grahm became interested in wine while working in a wine shop, while he was studying philosophy. He moved on to studying winemaking at UC Davis and worked at the Smothers Brothers winery after graduation. In 1983, he started his own winery – Bonny Doon Vineyard – near Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz County, which became one of the USA’s largest wine producers. At its peak, in 2006, Bonny Doon sold some 450,000 cases of wine.

These days are over. Randall Grahm has abandoned making mass-market wine and is now en route to make a vin de terroir in small quantities - high-end, boutique wines.

The U-turn has also allowed him to spend more time with his partner, Chinshu Huang, and their young daughter Amelie, following a health crisis, a bout with osteomyelitis ( a rare bone infection). The surgery kept him from attending the opening of his own 2004 rock opera - Born to Rhone.

Pacific Rim – German Style Riesling

Pacific Rim is in Washington State now and produces 190,000 cases of wine, almost all of which is Riesling made from Washington grapes. Only Chateau Ste. Michelle and Hogue Cellars make more Riesling in Washington State. It is owned by the Banfi family.

Randall Grahm founded Pacific Rim in 1992. His Pacific Rim Dry Riesling quickly gained a loyal following among Riesling lovers, for its fresh and bright characteristics. When Randall Grahm decided in 2006 to downsize and reorganize Bonny Doon Vinyard, including Pacific Rim, he started to spin off his Pacific Rim wines as a standalone winery in Washington State, where the US Riesling grapes came from. He worked with the Den Hoed family, longtime grape growers in the Yakima Valley, to create a winemaking facility in the shadow of Red Mountain. In 2011, Pacific Rim was purchased by the Banfi family, which owns an important wine import company in New York and a famous winery and vineyard in Italy.

One of the Rieslings Randall Grahm used to produce was an Organic Riesling. According to Randall Grahm,” it was sustainably produced from vine to bottle --- 99.2% of all components for our Riesling are organic. We even use native — not commercial — yeast to best present the natural character of our vineyard. We use no pesticides and every element within our sustainably-farmed vineyard is native to the vineyard. Our winery is centrally located within fifty miles of all our vineyards, reducing freight and therefore reducing our carbon footprint. Skylights offset demand for electrical lighting. And energy-efficient alternatives are employed throughout our wine making process. Additionally, the package is 100% recyclable. For all our wines, we exclusively use stainless steel tanks to preserve the complex character of the Riesling grape. No oak barrels or malolactic fermentation are used in our wine making.”

Another Riesling was sold as a non-vintage. This wine was a very unusual wine. It was an intercontinental blend, made from grapes from Washington State and grapes from the Mosel area in Germany. 80 percent of the grapes come from the Columbia Valley in Washington State and 20 percent from the Mosel Valley, selected by the German wine maker Johannes Selbach. Because it was an intercontinental blend, the wine had to be labeled as a NV. Randall Grahm stopped using German grapes in 2008.

Bonny Doon began with Pinot Noir, became a leading voice in promoting Rhone grapes, and then touted Italian grapes. Randall Grahm promoted screwcaps and truth in labeling. Bonny Doon is known for its untraditional labels, including illustrations by Ralph Steadman, Grady McFerrin, and Gary Taxali.

After the vines in its own vineyard were destroyed by Pierce's disease in 1994, Randall Grahm switched to a negociant approach and supported its wine production by purchasing grapes from other California vineyards, as well as in Oregon and Europe. Wine production expanded significantly in this period.

At its peak, in 2006, Bonny Doon sold some 450,000 cases of wine, when Grahm Randall decided to change course. He sold the Big House wines and Cardinal Zin labels in 2006.

Production has dropped to 35,000 cases today. The lineup of 35 different wines has been reduced to around 10.

Vin de Terroir – Back to the Roots

Over the past several years, Randall Grahm has acquired a number of properties, where he is going to make a vin de terroir in small quantities.

He brought in 1,000 goats to eat away the dense underbrush. The vineyard will be dry-farmed and head-pruned (no wires, just a single stake per vine) - a style of farming more in tune with the 19th century. At least half the vines will be planted on their own roots. If he is lucky, the vineyard will provide a modest 8,000 cases of wine to sell.

“I don’t want to rely on winemaking tricks anymore,” he said in an interview, enumerating aroma-enhancing yeasts, enzymes and spinning cones among the modern techniques he’s used to change the composition of a wine. Instead, he dreams of growing vines from seeds, unheard of in this post-phylloxera era of rootstocks and cuttings and grafts. He is intrigued by wines made in amphorae.

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About Me

I live in the greater Washington DC (US) and Frankfurt am Main (Germany) areas and write about wine. I am a member of the FIJEV (International Federation of Wine and Spirits Journalists and Writers). Before starting to write about wine in 2009, I was for almost 30 years an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am currently in Washington DC.